Grain truck boxes and frames around Bow Island and Forty Mile County

On farms around Bow Island and Foremost, the grain truck is often the oldest working thing on the yard. The engine gets attention. The box and the frame usually do not, until the floor rusts through or the rails start scaling.

Where farm trucks rust

• The box floor, especially along the seams and under the hoist.
• Frame rails — inside the channel, where grain dust and moisture collect.
• Crossmembers and hoist mounts, which hold water.
• Tailgates and chutes, which take the wear every load.

What blasting does for a truck like this

It takes everything back to bare steel so you can see what is actually there. Sound steel gets primed and painted. Thin or holed sections show up plainly, and you can decide whether to weld or replace before spending on paint. That is the point made in what blasting reveals.

Frames and heavy steel are blasted dry. Thinner cab and fender sheet metal is done wet so it does not warp from friction heat.

A frame that has been painted over its rust looks fine for a year. A frame that has been blasted and coated looks fine for a lot longer.

Time it around harvest

In Forty Mile County the trucks are busy from harvest through hauling and then sit. That parked stretch is when to do it. We bring the rig to the yard, so the truck does not need to be driven or trailered into Medicine Hat.

Line up the paint

Bare steel starts flash-rusting quickly. We carry rust inhibitor in the water, but it buys days, not months. Know who is priming and painting before we strip it — more on flash rust here.